Today was an off-day for Maine's athletes at the Beijing Summer Olympics. Good thing.

The organizers of these Games had put together a media tour of the Great Wall of China, in the Badaling section, which was built to protect Beijing from the north.

The first thing that struck me, other than its size, was the fact that it simply flowed with the mountainside: up, down, around. It is mind-boggling that this wall. some 4,000 miles long, was built by hand back in the early 16th century.

Any way, if you want to read about my walk up the Wall, look to the Portland Press Herald.

Here's some videos (it's my first attempt to load videos on the blog, so be kind) and photos.

Here's a warning: don't be worried about me, even though I may sound like I'm about to keel over in the second video. I was. But all I needed was a rest. It's a looooooooooong, steeeeeeeeeep walk.

At the beginning:

Somewhere on the wall:

Finally at the top:

Now that you've seen the journey, here's some more photos:

Our tour guides, Li and Jessie:

A daunting task to walk this wall:

The Olympic spirit lives, as seen through the window of this turret:

Somehow I don't think this sign was here when the wall was first built:

Steep? Let me tell you about steep:

"Gonna fly now, flying high now …''

These two guys, Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press on the left and Wolfgang Dreyer of Dresden, Germany on the right, kept me going to the top:

The view from the top:

Noticed this on the way down -- they simply built the Great Wall around the mountainside, leaving rocks as part of the foundation:

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